Board 8 > B8 Movie Club Topic 2 - Into the Little Shop of Fargo Willy's Machete Wonderland

(+) Yeah! (+)

kateee posted...

yeah i think it became quickly apparent that this was not going to happen because nothing could live up to the expectations.

what movies do you two feel the most differently about?

also when we first started, i asked everyone about their top 10 movies. any idea what that would look like for you?

there aren't really any genres that we're black and white about, just things that he leans toward that I don't, and vice versa. I'd say our taste in shows is a lot different (I love trash tv, documentaries, YouTube projects, etc.; he'll actually like watch acclaimed shows on his own). I think the biggest thing remains in what sticks with us. For some reason, after seeing "First Reformed", I couldn't stop thinking about it and its themes, whereas it didn't impact John as hard. He likes romance movies a smidge more than I do, and he's more willing to watch movies just to watch them. I have to actually kind of be interested in the premise. Though I'll watch all movies up for nominations here.

My top movies include American Beauty, Whiplash, Midsommar, etc., I really enjoy slow-burn indies (like The Florida Project) and arthouse horror; I'd say those types are generally my favorite. I also really enjoy just dark, gritty movies, or movies with imperfect protagonists (I'm Thinking Of Ending Things). I like when movies can jar me in some type of way, like All That Jazz, or the Killing of a Sacred Deer. I'm mainly impressed when the writing is good and the acting seems thoughtful. I hope that's descriptive enough!

I'll basically watch most things though if they seem interesting enough.

The Love Witch (2016)

I get what they were trying to do here, and it was a great homage to 1970s trippy hippy shit right down to the dialogue and how it was delivered - big cringe. But my goddess, I now have a huge crush on Samantha Robinson. She was stunning. There were a lot of beautiful women in this actually, like all the characters in the background in the pink tea room. Instead of looking at Trish I was mesmerized by the lady behind her sipping tea. As the movie progressed, I couldn't quite put my finger on what type of movie this was: romance, comedy, soft porn, horror, B movie? It checked all those boxes.

I kinda enjoyed it though, only because of Elaine. She was interesting enough. Probably cause she reminds me of my ex who was also into witchcraft and stuff, but I digress.

6/10

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Camden posted...

This was actually my favorite part of the movie, I stopped the movie to watch it back a few times. One of those rare scenes that got a genuine, out loud laugh out of me

LMAO! I did the same thing. I stopped to see it again. I was dying.


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The Love Witch

What a simply wonderfully imaginative, gorgeous, and creative film. Outside of Bale's Patrick Bateman, Samantha Robinson gives my favorite performance in a film ever. Her brilliant mix of satirical witty chaos & desperate but heartfelt yearning for love is beyond magnetic, never before has a performance simply hypnotized me for the entire duration as this one. On the surface, Elaine appears as the true definition of a free spirit, hard-spoken and genuine, but despite this she tends to bring herself down to others' levels in order to feel affection. Among its many hats, I see The Love Witch mainly as a tragedy: both the character of Elaine and the film itself tackle years of gender roles in film, and through Elaine's search for love she ironically self-objectifies, and becomes exactly what she thinks men want her to be instead of living life on her own merits. It's this strange dichotomy where you have Elaine, the driven witch relentlessly pursuing her goals to the point of murder, and then Elaine, the lost soul and the by-product of the very masculine and misogynistic society she attempts to defy.

On a technical level; The Love Witch capitalizes on its 60s & 70s psychedelic influences with its authentic 35mm film use, allowing the viewer to take in gorgeous images of what I think are the film's best sequences: "the rainbow", the tea room, the mock wedding. These dream-like trips, in addition to being insanely fun sequences showcasing the pure talent of set design, wardrobe, and performances here, are also where a lot of the horror comes from. Yes, this film is also technically a horror movie, sure, not what you would expect from a traditional one, but more so along the lines of intellectual dramas of the Technicolor era: The Birds, Suspiria, Peeping Tom. The mysterious natures of the film's proceedings and Elaine's increasing body count scare in a way that makes the viewer more uncomfortable and bewildered than anything.

This film, with all of its influences and genre spins and detail-heavy filmmaking can admittedly be hard to approach, and yes some parts do come off as simply campy or even overly slow-paced. Still, how this film approaches feminism and over 50 years of male-oriented filmmaking has placed it close to my heart and I now count it as one of my favorite films of all time. The insanely well-realized character of Elaine help climb this film to heights unseen, a compelling study of character and sexuality while having more than its fair share of hilarious indulgences too.

10/10

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Hunt for the Wilderpeople - 8/10

I also went into this one completely blind and was pleasantly surprised.

I thought the movie was gonna be like We Need to Talk About Kevin but I'm glad it's more like Up. The relationship between Rick and Hector was great, but Rick and Bella's was amazingly sweet as well. The characters feel real despite the comedic trappings. Their journey in the woods was also exciting all the time. And I enjoyed the New Zealand locality that Taika Waititi infused lovingly into the movie.


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The Love Witch (2016)
In full disclosure, John and I specifically didn't talk about this movie so we could see each other's thoughts uninterrupted.

Elaine is an incredibly captivating, beautiful protagonist, and it feels like in a way she basically seduces the film watcher as much as she seduces the men around her. I enjoy the director/writer/producer/costume designer's vision for the movie, definitely done in a way that views Elaine's sexuality as empowering, past the point of really caring what the men truly think about her. She kind of reminds me of that one tiktoker, Chrissy Chlapecka. It's incredibly charming.

Some of the writing took me out of the immersion, as well as the stunted dialogue and somewhat awkward pacing. It took a long time for me to really get what was happening, but Elaine captured my attention the whole time. (Well, and the harp player. And the witch leader lady?). This film had its pros and cons, but the more I think about it, the more I enjoy it.

7.5/10

for the spreadsheet ratings, i'm recording on a 1-10 scale with no decimals

yeah and as time passes, the more i like it as well. probably not enough for an 8/10 yet but it's improved

actually out of the movies for this topic, my opinion for 45 Years keeps going up. Thoroughbreds too but on a smaller scale. 45 Years just comes into my mind a lot though.

@Seginustemple your turn to recommend this week!

The Love Witch

The Love Witch strikes me as a movie that has a lot to say, though I'm not entirely sure what it all is. There's subtext everywhere, from underlying themes of sexism inherent in society to classic 60s horror styling. In particular, influence from Psycho bleeds throughout the film (though, if I'm being honest, I don't know that Hitchcock's the best person to be taking feminist inspiration from, unless that was the point in which case ignore me).

I think maybe this film requires multiple watches? So much of this is bizarre that it's hard to process, and I have a lot of questions. So I understand that in this society, witches are a thing that people have accepted do actually provably exist (I mean, we have wiccan irl, but there's a certain acceptance of them as beings who can actually do magic). Are we intended to view Elaine as victimized by the men around her, taking the blame for their deaths when, as she said, what happens to them was not her doing and she shouldn't be made to be a monster simply for being the target of their affection? Though that theory becomes much more difficult to grasp when she does, in fact, kill a man directly, who's shown her no harm beyond refusing to love her.

Samantha Robinson is excellent, though nobody else in the film really comes close to her in terms of performance (unless you count the costume and set designer, who's the real star of the film).

Overall it's a movie that either 1. I'm too dumb to fully get after one viewing or 2. has messaging made unclear by its desire for style. Whichever it is, it's not forgettable.

8/10

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Poop. 7/10. My bad.

also just now realizing I never posted a rating for Hunt for the Wilderpeople but that was a 8 as well

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Honestly there are free youtube uploads for most of these but the quality suffers

Black Narcissus (1947)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Murder By Death (1976)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
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Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
Black Narcissus (1947)
Murder By Death (1976)

The trailer for Murder By Death, boy, one of those characters hasn't aged particularly well.

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Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Murder By Death (1976)
Black Narcissus (1947)

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Vote for any and all movies you would be interested in seeing for the next week (~Mar. 19th, NA). The movie with the most overall votes wins. You may rank your votes from most preferred to least (do not rank movies you would not vote for) so I don't have to @ you back in case of a tie. If you do not intend to vote and are fine with whatever wins, please reply with "No Vote" so there is as little of a waiting period as possible. If you list multiple movies in your vote but you are not ranking them, please include "Not Ranked" along with your vote (I will assume they are ranked otherwise). Please vote by Friday, Mar. 19th, 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Black Narcissus (1947)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Murder By Death (1976)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

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Camden posted...

The trailer for Murder By Death, boy, one of those characters hasn't aged particularly well.

The Peter Sellers character does come off pretty bad now but I will say the whole gag is that Charlie Chan was a stereotype character played by a white guy. Doesn't mean it's not offensive in this movie, but that's what they're riffing on
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Murder By Death (1976)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

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Black Narcissus (1947)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Black Narcissus (1947)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Murder By Death (1976)
Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)

Not ranked

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Johnbobb posted...

Are we intended to view Elaine as victimized by the men around her, taking the blame for their deaths when, as she said, what happens to them was not her doing and she shouldn't be made to be a monster simply for being the target of their affection? Though that theory becomes much more p.

She is the embodiment of the feminine ideal. She has that line in the beginning when she's talking to the wife character about how you should just please your man or something (she always cooks the men a meal before giving them sex). So basically the men are "killed" by buying into/falling in love with the idea of the perfect woman who is only there to please the man. There's a line the cop says at the end about this, I'll look this up later but basically he rejects the idea of the feminine ideal iirc. Well Elaine who's been molding herself based that can't take that. There's the white horse, fairy tale imagery to signal her beliefs as mere fantasy but that's what she's about. As for the matter of victimization, yes she is in a way. How did she come to these beliefs? They were reinforced by society and the men around her and eventually turned her into the 'witch' she became. My take for now anyway.

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
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I really need to start doing write-ups sooner. I keep watching movies and then forgetting that I haven't posted anything yet.

The Love Witch

I feel like I'd appreciate this movie more if I had any familiarity with the kind of stuff it's imitating. It's definitely going for a very specific style/aesthetic from an older era of movies, and the themes seem to be a response to that era as well. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about those movies to really "get" it. So what I'm left with is a movie with amazing design and a great lead character, but also seems like it's trying for a "so-bad-it's-good" feel (which isn't something I care much for). It's not a bad movie, it's just very much not for me.

Also, I'm going to have to agree with the people saying the Renaissance fair scene was pretty weak. It works thematically, but it just feels like it goes on way too long.

5/10

45 Years

Not much to say about this one (in part because it's been almost a week since I watched it. The story isn't really anything particularly new, but it's worth watching for the great acting.

7/10
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Black Narcissus (1947)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Murder By Death (1976)

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Gonna fall further behind but there are several movies I've missed that I plan to catch up on later

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Loaded Weapon 1
Murder By Death
Aguirre, the Wrath of God

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next movie is Murder by Death (1976) directed by Robert Moore.

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@Camden
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@Snake5555555555
@Suprak_the_Stud
@SwiftyDC
@tyder21
@ViolentAbacus
@Xeybozn

Amazing title

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Wait, Murder By Death won? Shit can I like retract the nomination because I will straight up say right now that movie is not nearly as funny as I remembered, I fucked up on that one I TAKE IT BACK
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The Love Witch

I'm big on style points so this worked for me. The camp acting, rich technicolor w/ bold sets and lighting, swanky score, the whole arch 70's aesthetic. Sometimes we pit style against substance, but I think style can be substance. 'The medium is the message' sort of thing. Clearly this Anna Biller is very hands-on, I believe credited as the set and costume designer as well as editor, writer, director - there's an auteur vibe to all of it, you feel the unified vision. The pink tea room was a highlight, I loved how it's visited on two separate occasions but the extras haven't moved, like it's a place frozen in time.

Apparently there was an occult scene coming out of San Francisco, Idk if that was an invention of the movie but it sounds believable. It's funny to me that horoscopes have become such a casual pop culture thing but similar stuff like tarots decks are still considered to be occult and weird. "I should have known...he was a Pisces" was one of my favorite line reads. Not the type of thing I associate with all that Aleister Crowley sex magick business, but I don't doubt they're connected. Side note - when the cult was doing their ritual in the nude the girl speaking looked cold as heck. They needed to stoke that fire a little better!

I'm not sure how to read the feminist angle, is there some truth in Trish's accusation that Elaine's been 'brainwashed by the patriarchy' or is she just owning the power of the male-gazey 'feminine ideal' construct to her own ends? Maybe a little of both? It's a very dark tale of self-empowerment, but then I guess it's supposed to be black comedy. I mean she ends up killing three dudes!

A very stylish 8/10
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No take backs

lol

Good chance I watch this tomorrow with college basketball taking a break for a few days.

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Seginustemple posted...

Honestly there are free youtube uploads for most of these but the quality suffers

did this apply for Murder by Death?

i wanted to at least check out the quality but there's no results

i have seen full uploads of movies before on youtube before; usually it's for way older stuff that i'm not sure i'd like but i've also found that it's also incredibly easy to get distracted watching on youtube than streaming/offline video file. so i would just end up stopping every like 10 minutes or so to check subscriptions and stuff

oh yeah and i guess i'll mention Sound of Metal is up for Best Picture Oscar?

i'm long past giving a shit about the Oscars but ya know it was one of the ones we covered so yeaaaa

i've only seen Minari out of the noms

this fucking character's name is literally Willie Wang

Murder by Death

Wow this movie was painful. I wanted to shut the movie off from the very first blind joke, where the butler misses the stamps, and it only got worse from there. Terribly dated accent jokes that get repeated ad nauseam, annoying caricatures of famous fictional detectives wasting its all-star cast, and juvenile pratfalls and silly faces round out the level of humor we're dealing with here. On paper, there's some good ideas here. I think there is something to be said about the mega-genius detective who can tell where someone has been last Friday because of a misplaced arm hair. Yet, this film think it's clever to toss in a bunch of random twists at the end while completely bullshitting its way through the middle, then have the nerve to think its earned the right to point and laugh at those same twists told in much better and much more memorable stories. I always feel when a parody does not respect the original works, then it just comes off as petty and mean-spirited. To give the film some more compliments though, Peter Falk is great it in it and I do like some of the film's more macabre moments, especially that death mask.

Also my jaw completely dropped when I realized one of the worst Punisher scenes in comic history came from this film:


4/10

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kateee posted...

did this apply for Murder by Death?

I found it here https://archive.org/details/MurderByDeath but damn I really should have gone through it again before nominating

Murder By Death

Whiff, sorry guys. I'm disappointed in myself. You ever revisit a movie and it's way worse than you remembered? And in the process of revisiting it you inflict it on other people? In my head this was a *better* version of Clue with a great cast and a hilarious Peter Falk performance. It is not better than Clue. I do still think Peter Falk is a gem (and he's not in it enough!), the rest of the cast is great on paper and the concept of spoofing classic detectives is right up my alley but damn most of the jokes just aren't funny. Many are just annoying and dumb.

The blind gags go on way too long and it's all Guinness gets to do until the end. Peter Sellers doing the Charlie Chan thing is actually completely obnoxious and gets way too much screentime - in theory this could work like RDJ in Tropic Thunder but there just isn't anywhere near that level of nuance to the caricature here. Like...it almost becomes more offensive than Charlie Chan simply by being unfunny.The Poirot guy only gets one good joke, when he correctly remembers his character is supposed to be Belgian and not French. The Charleston and Mrs. Marple characters are just kinda there (the old nurse is pretty funny I guess). Really the best thing about this is Peter Falk's ridiculous Bogart impression bouncing off Eileen Brennan's straight man performance, but the movie spends like 40 minutes screwing around with Sellers's awful accent before it even gets to them and it's just painful. I guess I remembered them being in it more.

I do like the setting and I think the movie could have leaned a little more into the madman fun-house concept it flirts with. Trap doors, revolving bookcases, animated suits of armor, why not. Scooby-Doo shit is what I'm here for. I mean you have Oscar winning actor Alec Guinness playing a blind butler in a mystery spoof, you'd think there's no way you can't get a good revolving bookcase gag out of that, right? That's just like a law of physical comedy. But that's this movie. It's got Oscar winning actor Alec Guinness playing a blind butler and it doesn't deliver a good revolving bookcase gag.

4/10 what was I thinking
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when was the last time you watched it?

i don't even regret watching it since i didn't know it existed before and i'm actually glad i do know about it now

Snake5555555555 posted...

Yet, this film think it's clever to toss in a bunch of random twists at the end while completely bullshitting its way through the middle, then have the nerve to think its earned the right to point and laugh at those same twists told in much better and much more memorable stories. I always feel when a parody does not respect the original works, then it just comes off as petty and mean-spirited.

yeah kind of like when a straw man is set up and people spend a lot of time attacking that instead of the actual argument

i never knew you could spoiler images here tho. have no familiarity with Punisher but it's always enlightening when you discover something was actually a reference.

the thing about Clue is that when i first watched it years ago i thought it was great and upon a rewatch (also years ago at this point) thought it was actually pretty stupid. i don't even remember it now though.

my first exposure to the whole 'franchise' was not even the game but the childrens book series? anybody ever read those? i thought they were hilarious because of the characters it gave the suspects and how every story was them trying to murder Mr. Boddy but he still kept inviting them over.

Murder by Death (1976)

Well, I made it to the end and vaguely remember them talking about a man with 10 fingers but no pinkies or something but didnt care to understand the twist. The plot went all over the place in the last 10 minutes or so that I lost track of what was actually going on. Like who were the random names people were spouting off trying to finagle the money for themselves? This also really didnt age well with all the racist asian jokes. It was pretty bad. It had a lot of familiar faces but also of actors/actresses that I never could put a name to. I went in expecting a murder mystery/comedy but was bored to death.

3/10

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Murder by Death

first of all, i could never remember what this movie was called since i kept saying 'Death by Murder' in my head.

i saw Camden's post about one of the characters not aging particularly well so i was kind of prepared for it despite not knowing anything about the movie beforehand. was wondering if it was like Breakfast at Tiffany's level. after watching it, i think not aging "particularly well" is an understatement lol. We had some similar comments previously in the topic about some of the stuff in Lost in Translation but this is on another level. i will say that the Peter Sellers character was easily the most consistently funny part of the movie. Not because of the actual 'jokes' or antics but how brazen it was and how it just kept coming. Like, with the first introduction of the character we already cover the accent, proverbs, teeth, and the type of music that plays when he's onscreen and of course his name is Wang. and the son's name is actually Wilie. But then later, he comes out in the costume (in contrast, his son wears a USC t-shirt at one point) and of all things, his grammar is ridiculed. i was thinking that all that was missing was some mention about his eyes and bad driving but then he gets called "Slanty" for good measure. Like, of course we can consider the characters where some of the specific insults come from but overall there's just so much that it's actually distracting. When the butler says, "You'll find a nice fire in your room" and opens the door and the bed is burning, if it was another movie I probably would have laughed because it would have caught me off guard. Here, it was just a 'oh' reaction because I was already informed at that point about the type of humor the movie had. and this is not even getting into the other elements like the blind butler and others! Like I said, it was the most consistently funny part about the movie because of the absurdity. Not that I really laughed or anything. It's the same reaction when you see some of the old Disney stuff like 'how is this real'. That whole aspect is kind of fascinating in a time-capsule sense. I wasn't ever like angry or disgusted watching the movie like I would have been if that kind of stuff would have been in a newer movie.

As for the actual plot, I never found mysteries particularly interesting and I'm not even familiar with anything outside of like one Agatha Christie and Scooby-Doo or whatever. Like I said, my favorite part of those Clue books as a kid were the characters themselves. I get the comments about the red herrings and the stupid twists that seemingly come out of nowhere but I don't really have any feelings, strong or otherwise, about the genre so my reaction to the whole affair is just 'ok'

3/10

@Xeybozn

your turn to nom!

OK, here are my noms:

Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
Perfect Blue (1997)
Waking Life (2001)
When the Wind Blows (1986)
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Murder by Death (1976)

Good god.

2/10

Perfect Blue (1997)
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
When the Wind Blows (1986)
Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)
Waking Life (2001)

I've seen It's Such a Beautiful Day like 4 times straight through and I love it and appreciate it so much that I'd absolutely be willing to watch it another time.

Perfect Blue (1997)
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
Waking Life (2001)
When the Wind Blows (1986)


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